


If You're Offering to Clean, You Could at Least Try

by SomethingtwopointO



Category: Undertale, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alphys - Freeform, F/M, Frisk - Freeform, Gender Neutral, M/M, One Shot, One-Shot, Oneshot, They're mentioned - Freeform, Undyne - Freeform, asgore - Freeform, gender neutral reader, sfw, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 13:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13788813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomethingtwopointO/pseuds/SomethingtwopointO
Summary: You throw a party - okay, it’s a little get together - so you and your friends can spend some time with each other. Sans is there before anyone else. I wonder why.





	If You're Offering to Clean, You Could at Least Try

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't have finished this without my lovely, talented beta: skelitzel! <3
> 
> http://skelitzel.tumblr.com/  
> http://archiveofourown.org/users/Skelitzel

The cold wind nipped at your skin as you walked to your house. Too bad you got your license suspended, or you would have been home in half the time (or less!). A particularly cold gust of wind billowed into you, so you drew the lapels of your coat closer together to ward off the chill. You managed to tear your arm from around yourself to get a peek at your watch. Six twenty-nine. Shit! You were going to be late! You had a little get-together going on at your house, which was supposed to start at six thirty. Luckily, you were almost there, so you probably weren't going to be too very late. You just hoped your friends wouldn't mind waiting out in the cold until you got there.

You had taken a wrong turn somewhere, but when you did eventually arrive at your front door, you realized that only one person was waiting there. Sans was standing at your door, seeming completely unfazed by winter's wrath. You looked down at your watch. You were about twenty-five minutes late, which was more than fashionably late. You looked back up to see Sans staring at you. When you made eye contact, he raised his hand in a lazy wave.

“Sans? Don't tell me everyone but you didn't come,” you said, knowing that someone had gotten mixed up. Maybe they all forgot that your get together was today....

“Huh?” Sans said, looking up at you with confusion, “They aren't here yet, but they're coming soon. Did you expect everyone to be here early?”

“What?” You checked the calendar on your phone. You were sure you'd said six thirty, but another look at your schedule proved that you'd decided on _seven thirty_. You groaned (in relief and annoyance) as you ran a hand down your face. “I rushed my ass over here thinking I was late! Now I'm half an hour early.”

Sans just chuckled at you, shaking his head slightly. “Look at the bright side, kid, at least you have extra time to set up. I know for a fact you didn't set the place up ahead of time.”

You gave him a halfhearted glare, but he wasn't wrong. You figured you'd only need five minutes to decorate and clean a little, so you didn't leave the store you were at until later. You thought you could walk home fast enough, but you clearly couldn't. Fortunately, you didn't remember the set time clearly, so you had plenty of time to prepare. You unlocked your front door to get the two of you out of the freezing cold, not that it seemed to bother Sans.

“So...I guess you thought the party was earlier, too?” you asked him as you shed your coat and boots.

“Haha, nah. You know I'm never clumsy with parties. I'm an expert, after all.”

You laughed, “Ha! As if! Remember my birthday party? You thought it was at ten o'clock _at night_ when it was in the _morning_!”

Sans laughed nervously, a light blue staining his cheekbones. You guessed he was still a little embarrassed about it.

“Is that why you're here early? You didn't want to be twelve hours late again?”

“Hey! For your information, Pap told me, and I was only two hours late!” he jested, laughing more cheerfully now, but with a slightly deeper blush.

You smiled softly at his embarrassment as you put your keys in their dish. You shed your coat and boots, stretching as you took in your living room. You grimaced a little when you evaluated the amount of work you'd have to do to get the place decent enough to decorate. You began to wonder whether you needed to decorate for a small get-together when you felt a gentle tap on your shoulder.

Sans was giving you a sheepish smile, “Uh, is there something you'd like me to help you clean? I could, uh....”

You smiled brightly at him, “Thanks! How about you clean the baseboards? I know they haven't been cleaned since I got the place!” Once you'd basically emptied your closet looking for cleaning wipes for Sans (and in turn getting all the other supplies you needed), you decided to wipe the table and kitchen counter clean. As you scrubbed at a particularly stubborn stain on the table, you glanced at Sans. He seemed a little lost when it came to what and where to clean. Didn't you ask him to clean the baseboards? Did he not know what they were? You chose to leave him in his silent turmoil, opting instead to find a more powerful cleaner for the stain on the table. 

After searching under every sink in your house, you managed to find a stronger cleaner made specifically for wood (though you didn't actually care, as long as it got the stain off). You just finished putting on some gloves for protection when you heard Sans clear his throat behind you. You turned to face him and quirked a brow.

“I, uh, finished with the...baseboards,” he said as he scratched the back of his neck, “Is there something else I can do?”

“Oh, um...” you muttered as you looked around the house for something he could do. “Why don't you sweep? I'll get the broom for you.”

He nodded but didn't make eye contact with you. That was strange, but maybe he was just getting a little bored.

“I appreciate you helping,” you said, “but you can stop whenever you want.”

“Nah, I'm good. What kinda friend _wood_ I be if I bailed on ya now?” He smiled wide and gestured to the wood cleaner still in your hand.

You glanced at it for a second before it clicked. You tsked and gently tapped the container against his head before handing him the broom. “Maybe I'll make you do the rest of the cleaning as punishment for that.”

“ _Pun_ ishment?”

“You're dead to me.”

He laughed as you barely held back a smile and stormed off in mock exasperation.

You got back to work cleaning the table. You put some serious elbow grease into scrubbing this time...but to no avail. You huffed and put your hands on your hips. Where else did you have cleaning supplies? Maybe you had something stronger hidden away.... You felt the odd sense of being watched and turned to face Sans.

He was minding his own business, sweeping...poorly. Did he know how to sweep? Though you could have sworn you saw him quickly look away.

“Hey, Sans? You doing okay?”

“What? O-Of course, why do you ask?”

“No reason,” you murmured as you turned back to the table. He was definitely acting weird, but it was clear that he wasn't going to talk about it. Despite your best efforts, you started getting self-conscious. Was he acting that way because of something you were doing? Were _you_ making him uncomfortable? You bit your lip in thought. If Sans was uncomfortable about something you were doing, he would just tell you. Wouldn't he?

Shaking the thoughts from your head, you glanced at the clock hanging on the wall near the table. It was seven twenty. You sighed, “Hey, Sans? Will you help me with the tablecloth?”

He glanced at the clock and the table before chuckling in amusement. “Heh, sure thing.”

~ ~ ~

Sans placed the last bowl of snacks on the (now hidden) table. You checked to make sure everything was set up before promptly flopping into a chair. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Sans quietly pull up a chair...on the opposite side of the table from you. You spared him a glance that must have showed off your confusion and irritation because his neutral smile faltered slightly and he seemed to withdraw into his seat.

“Sorry,” you mumbled, some irritation still making it's way out.

“Hey, I, uh. You...you asked why I came early, right?” Sans said as he tapped his phalanges on the table.

This peaked your interest, as you'd already forgotten that he hadn't answered that question earlier. “Yeah?”

He cleared his throat. “Well, it's just 'cause I-”

The doorbell chimed, cutting Sans off. You might have been irritated at the timing for a moment, but you were more excited about seeing your friends. It had been quite some time since the lot of you had hung out. As soon as the door opened, you were nearly knocked to the floor.

“It is I, the one and only Great Papyrus! Nyeh heh heh!”

“Hi, Papyrus!” you said as you hugged him, feeling the air leave you when he hugged back tightly.

“Hello, human! I am right on time, very prompt, as usual! I have a reputation to uphold!” Papyrus shouted (as he did often), placing a fist proudly against his chest and holding a container high.

“Oh, actually, Paps,” you said, smiling softly with a quick check of the clock inside, “it's seven thirty-one.”

“ **NO! MY REPUTATION!** ” he cried in anguish, falling to his knees dramatically. “Please, human, take this home-made, five-star spaghetti. Hopefully, it can amend the mistake of my tardiness.”

You couldn't help laughing loudly at the display before you. “Haha! Papyrus, it's one minute, it's fine. Besides, I promise I won't tell anyone about this. Your reputation is safe with me.” You whispered the last part before winking and taking his container of pasta.

“Ah, thank you, human! I always knew I could trust you! So as long as Sans doesn't know, it'll be fine. I know he has high standards of my promptness, so I'd hate to disappoint him.” He took great strides into the house, turning to face the table. “ **NO!** ”

You burst out laughing, doubling over from the effort not to fall over.

“Human, this is no laughing matter! My reputation is ruined! I can never show my face at a party again! Not to mention _Sans_ was here on time and _I_ wasn't! Papyrus complained, but there was a smile on his face and mirth in his voice.

~ ~ ~

Not long after Papyrus arrived, everyone else did. Toriel, Asgore, Undyne, Alphys, even little Frisk tagged along.

You didn't catch a chance to ask Sans what he was going to say before Papyrus knocked on the door. Between Papyrus talking your ear off and everyone else's arrival, you had been a bit tied up. Now that everyone had been greeted and were chatting, you were free to ask Sans (who hadn't seemed to move from his spot at the table) what it was he never finished saying. You walked over to the table when you heard someone calling you.

“Would you come over here, please?” Toriel said after calling for you.

You resisted sighing in exasperation and turned to walk over to Toriel. Upon looking up at the impressively tall goat monster, you noticed a glint in her eye and a knowing look on her face.

“Might I ask you a question, dear?”

You nodded, “Go right ahead.”

“Who was the first person to arrive? I assumed it was Papyrus at first, but he already told me of his horrible tardiness. One minute. I can't believe it.” She let out a soft, pretty laugh.

You couldn't help smiling and chuckling a little, too. It was contagious. “Haha. Yeah, he was pretty devastated. Anyway, Sans was the first to arrive. He was at my door before I got back from the store. Why?”

Toriel giggled again in response, and there was that glint in her eye from before. “Oh, I see. Did you invite him to come early, then?”

Ah. You couldn't quite place the look she was giving you before, but now you could. She had the knowing look of a mother who found out about her child's crush. You could feel your cheeks heating slightly at the accusation, hoping it wouldn't show. Given the almost smug smirk Toriel gave you, you figured it _had_ shown. “N-No, of course not. Why would I?” you stammered, mentally kicking yourself for the blatantly guilty reaction.

“Now, now, my child. There really is no reason to be embarrassed for it. I've had it figured out for quite a bit, actually.”

You blushed harder at that. Sure, you've sorta had a thing for Sans for a while, but you didn't think you were that obvious. If you were really that obvious...is _that_ why Sans was acting so awkward earlier?! Back when you were a teenager, you used to get so embarrassed at the thought of your crush finding out about how you felt, but always thought you wouldn't be like that when you got older. Turns out some things never change, that included. “I...I, uh. I'm not sure what you mean.”

“My child, I've known for quite some time that you are...well, infatuated, to say the least.” Toriel smiled softly at you, placing one of her massive paws on your shoulder.

“I-I'm not, Toriel. I really don't know where you got that idea. I'm not...not _infatuated_.” You could feel the blush on your cheeks darken the longer the conversation went on, so you quickly excused yourself to the restroom. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you heard a voice tell you doing that only solidified Toriel's beliefs (why would you get so flustered unless she was right?), but you tried to ignore it.

A glance in the mirror showed that you were blushing harder than you thought you were. You splashed cold water on your face to cool down the white-hot embarrassment and calm you down. After drying your face, you took another glance at the mirror to make sure you weren't blushing anymore and made your way to the table where Sans was still sitting. Another thought crossed your mind, “ _If I'm that obvious, then everyone, including Sans, would know how I feel as soon as they saw me walk over to him_ ”. Nope. You weren't going to let silly, exaggerated thoughts like that control you. You were not a nervous, little teen anymore. You were a grown-ass adult who absolutely _did not_ care if Sans knew and rejected you. Well, maybe you cared about the latter, but still!

Making up your mind, you marched (hopefully with confidence) to the table. “H-Hey, Sans. Sorry about that, Toriel needed to...uh...ask me something.” There went your hope of seeming confident.

“Yeah, it's no problem,” Sans said with a shrug, watching you as you sat across from him. A look of worry crossed his face, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come, leaving you wondering if it was there at all.

“Y-Yeah. Cool.” You would have face-palmed if Sans wasn't right there.

An extremely awkward silence succeeded your equally awkward remark. Sans tapped his phalanges on the table, and you twiddled your thumbs. Neither of you would look at each other.

“Hey...are you okay, kid?” Sans asked, breaking the suffocating, uncomfortable silence.

“What? Oh. Yeah, I'm fine.” You rubbed your arm, stopping when you realized it probably made you look as not-okay as you felt. The silence continued, and you wondered if you should ask Sans to finish what he was saying earlier. What if he was going to tell you that he'd figured out how you felt? What if he was going to reject you before the party so he wouldn't embarrass you in front of everyone? Suddenly, you were much more reluctant to break the silence. At least the party would distract you from your nerves soon enough....

~ ~ ~

You were wrong. Very horribly wrong. You were a nervous wreck the entire party, avoiding talking to Sans. Whatever it took to dodge interacting with him: talking to everyone and anyone else, needing to use the restroom, needing to get more snacks for the table, whatever it took. The party didn't distract you at all. The only thing you thought of was how you made Sans uncomfortable by being way too obvious with how you felt and how he was going to tell you all about it as soon as he got the chance.

All in all, you made it to the end of the party. Everyone left, you exchanged hugs and agreements that you all had to get together more often. As Toriel left, she looked over your shoulder and gave you a sly smile with a wink. You had to force yourself not to whip around to see what had made her smile like that.

As soon as the door shut behind her, you did turn around. There was Sans, pretending not to look at you, but it was clear that he was waiting for you to finish talking to Toriel. You sighed, maybe it looked rude from Sans's perspective, but you couldn't help it. You were running out of excuses to not talk to him.

He smiled as your eyes met, waving you over. As you walked up to him, mind reeling with possible excuses, you saw that the smile was slightly strained. “Hey, buddy. I've been trying to catch a moment with you all day.” He chuckled.

“S-Sorry about that. I, uh, I gotta ditch you – er, you know, leave – one more time, I gotta-”

“No,” he said softly, though there was a slight edge to his voice, “no more running off. It's alright, I forgive you and all. I know why you were avoiding me, heh, I'd probably be avoiding me, too, if I were you.”

Sweat began to accumulate on your forehead. Welp, your time ran out. Now you had to face Sans's judgment, so to speak.

“Yeah, I make you really uncomfortable, don't I?”

Well, yes, but he sounded...guilty almost? No, not quite, but you couldn't really place it.

“Not trying to guilt you, or anything like that. I've been acting pretty weird today, so I get it. I, uh, was trying to tell you why earlier. I guess now's as good a time as any.”

This was it. He was going to tell you to back off, that he wasn't interested. You could take it. The two of you had known each other for a while now, so you knew he wasn't the type of guy to want nothing to do with you after rejecting you. He'd probably try to maintain a friendship with you (if you were comfortable with it). Yeah, you could take it.

He sighed and scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Well, I...heh, I-I showed up early to tell you something, but I lost the courage to do it. That's why I was acting that way...but you want to know what I was going to tell you, huh?” He looked up at you, almost like he was waiting for confirmation.

You'd already decided that it was now or never. He was going to tell you eventually, so it might as well be when you're expecting it. You nodded.

“R-Right. I was...going to tell you that I have...that, y'know, I've gotta...I-I'm into you.” Sans's cheekbones were a dark blue, and he refused to meet your eyes now. “I was, uh, gonna tell you, but I couldn't make myself. Probably a good thing 'cause then I realized how uncomfortable you were around me...just me. So, I get that you aren't into me, too, just thought you'd – I dunno – want to know, I guess.”

You blinked and tried to process what he said. He was into you...and you were into him...and you were reading the situation correctly, right? Before you could ask, he continued.

“I probably just made you more uncomfortable – unless you already knew, or something – so I understand if you don't want to hang with me alone anymore...or-or at all. It's fine....”

“Sans, I'm going to kill you one of these days,” you said, smiling. All that worrying for no reason. You really were just being silly.

At your remark, he immediately looked up, clearly not expecting that response. When his white eye lights landed on your smile, his own neutral smile became a little more hopeful.

Then it became surprised because you nearly knocked him over with a hug. He slowly wrapped his arms around you, hugging you back. You could feel how tense he was and how he relaxed into the hug, letting his head rest on your shoulder.

“You were acting so weird, and I had no idea what was up. Then I figured it was _my_ fault. Then Toriel told me she knew I had a thing for you, so I thought maybe you knew and that's why you were being weird. So _I_ was being weird. You should have just told me earlier. I thought you were going to tell me to leave you alone and stop being a love-sick creep!” you rambled, finally relieving all the stress you were in during the party.

Sans's hold on you tightened slightly. “You, uh, you've gotta thing for me?” There was an underlying excitement in his usually relaxed, monotone voice.

“Yep.”

“Heh. So...this was just a misunderstanding that got blown way outta proportion?”

“Sounds like it.”

“To _patell-ya_ the truth, I had no idea you were a love-sick creep, and I'm usually more observant than that.”

You gently released Sans from your hug. He smiled up at you innocently.

“Sans, you know how I just said I was going to kill you one of these days?”

“Wha-?”

“Well, that day is today.”

You both waited for a beat before bursting into laughter.

“I – heh heh – I always knew you liked my puns!” Sans gasped between prongs of laughter.

“Haha, yeah, you caught me,” you said, shrugging in defeat. “Anyway, will you help me clean up the place?”

Sans nodded. “Sure, what should I do first?”

You gave him a sly smile. “You could start cleaning those baseboards you never got to.”

Huh, there was that blue blush from earlier.


End file.
